


Lived to See Our Glory

by raven_aorla



Category: Hamilton - Miranda
Genre: Canon Era, Closure, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Gen, Georges just wants his dad to follow the itinerary, Grief, Lafayette wants to visit some graves too, Mourning, Only those listed in the Characters tags are alive, references to imprisonment, references to the guillotine
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-26
Updated: 2016-09-26
Packaged: 2018-08-17 10:25:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,234
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8140615
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/raven_aorla/pseuds/raven_aorla
Summary: In 1824, Lafayette and his son were invited to go on a grand tour as guests of honor throughout all of the American states, old and new. Thousands upon thousands of people came to see him. Not everyone he wanted, though. (Or: Lafayette runs into 1 old friend, visits 5 graves, and seeks out someone who'll understand.)





	

**Author's Note:**

> There is no documentation of any of the reunions/visits here except for JAL and GW, but most of the things he says to his friends are based on true events. I messed with timelines and order of events somewhat. The biggest one is that Angie shouldn't be where she is here, but I wanted her present for thematic reasons.
> 
> You can picture Georges however you like, but if we were going to put him in the musical canon, I nominate Donald Glover/Childish Gambino.

PROLOGUE

"Stop the carriage!" Lafayette shouted. 

Georges grabbed his arm in concern. "What's wrong?"

Lafayette flashed a grin almost as joyful as when he first spotted the American coast and their extravagant welcoming party at the beginning of their grand tour. "Nothing at all." Then he flung the door open and ran out into the street. (Probably faster than was advisable for a man his age, but this was too important.)

James Armistead Lafayette was in the crowd! Former slave who served under Lafayette as a double agent, who helped expose Benedict Arnold, who added the name to his own in gratitude for Lafayette's role in his emancipation after the war! 

Flinging his arms around the startled - but pleased - man, Lafayette said, "My friend, it's been so long. I've missed you."

"I've, uh, missed you too, General."

"How's your farm? You have a farm now, yes? Like you dreamed of? Your own farm. Wonderful."

Georges leaned out of the carriage, and called out in French, "I'm glad you've been reunited with someone, but you're holding up this whole grand procession!"

"I don't care! It's 1824. I haven't been back in decades. Do you know how few of my American friends are still alive? Do you know how many dead I'll be visiting?"

***

GEORGE WASHINGTON

Lafayette went alone, with a wreath. Flowers placed, he stood there for a long time. Eventually, he said, "You've committed no error against me, Your Excellency, except for not waiting to see me again." Then he saluted. 

***

MOUNT VERNON SLAVE GRAVEYARD

These flowers were loose, unbound, so he could spread them out a bit, and for the symbolism of it. "I tried to convince him to do it with his own within his lifetime, even if it apparently wasn't possible to end slavery in the entire country all at once. It's something that he freed all of you in his will. Something. I'm sorry it was too late for so many. I commanded a number of black spies and soldiers in the war, and they were every bit as brave and capable as any other man. 

"I'm friends with Jefferson and cordial with Madison, Monroe, and others, and I would rather not have to explain that to you in Heaven, assuming I get in.

"All I can say is that the greatest man I ever knew wronged you deeply, yet the most horrific man I've ever had to deal with was also the most successful abolitionist I've heard of. Robespierre did an excellent job having slavery outlawed in all French colonies before he developed such enthusiasm for sending people to the guillotine..."

Lafayette touched one of the simple crosses, stroking the soft moss. "And the most ardent abolitionist I ever knew was one of my dearest friends, and more than a bit of an infuriating fool."

***

JOHN LAURENS

"You are the worst, Laurens. You ass."

Lafayette looked around, slightly guiltily, as if someone might know mild French curses and be scandalized. 

"I take issue with this inscription. It's not sweet and fitting to die for one's country if your country didn't need you to. America gained nothing from your death, from you throwing your life away for a war you knew full well was over. It lost a man who would have done it so much good. Your wife and daughter lost someone who should have protected and cared for them, regardless of your feelings and why you left them behind in England and kept them nearly secret. Your friends lost...you."

 _Dulce decorum est pro patria mori,_ the gravestone said back.

"I said it after our first battle together, you know: it was not your fault you weren't killed or wounded at Brandywine, because you were doing everything necessary to be."

There was sunshine, and the sound of birds.

"I'm going to see your 'dear boy' when I visit New York. May I take a pebble? Have flowers."

***

ALEXANDER HAMILTON

"These flowers aren't for you, Hamilton. This pebble is for you. It’s from lovely plot of land, very peaceful. You two were always good at maintaining your devotion to one another no matter the distance. 

“I already gave Laurens a scolding. Like I used to say about you not writing to me more often after the war, if I didn't love you this much I'd be very angry. I'm more, um...hmm, I believe an appropriate word might be 'miffed'? I was never angry that you supported neutrality. It was your death that felt like betrayal. Apologizing to Burr might have hurt your pride and ambition, but you could have done so much more.

"Still. I'm told you set the legal precedent that it's not libel if the prosecution can't prove it's not factual. I like that. I've read copies of the New York Post. The Coast Guard is going strong. Your bank system is still running. New York City is even more of a glorious chaos these days. I've been to the new capital. Swampy and humid, but the main buildings are beautiful, and it's well-named. 

"You might have been annoyed that I visited Monticello, but perhaps you'd be amused that Madison abruptly invited himself to dinner. Since when has Jefferson been so obsessed with pasta? He muttered darkly when I brought you up. I think you'd like that. A lasting psychological effect. He sent me all the wages the Army would have paid me if I hadn't served for free, after all my property was confiscated, Hamilton. The least I could do was eat with him and admire the results of his constant remodeling. You can't deny that. He's a great conversationalist with people he likes, I swear.

"There are many more states now, thanks to him. I wish you could see them. I’ve seen all of them at least once by this point. I sailed on a ship along a new canal. Erie, they call it."

Lafayette rubbed his face. His eyes were tingling. "Tried to find out what’s become of Mulligan. He seems to have faded away into obscurity, though I suppose that’s fitting, for a spy. I apologize.”

A squirrel scurried by on some urgent errand.

He sighed. “I would stay longer, but I have to go to Brooklyn for more of being a celebrated guest tomorrow. Georges can arrange for me only so much solitude. And I'm not here only for you.”

***

ANGELICA SCHUYLER CHURCH

“I’ve forgotten what varieties of flowers were your favorite. I hope these’ll do. I would never call you the best woman I’ve known, of course, not when I had the blessing of so many years with my Adrienne. But…”

He considered. He had somewhere else to be, a longer appointment, before returning to where he was supposedly meant to be. Yet he didn’t want to give Angelica (Mrs. Church had never seemed quite right, in his head) anything less than her due.

“You were the wittiest, cleverest woman I have ever known, madam. It’s not your fault your plan to help me escape prison failed. I doubt anyone else could have come so close to succeeding as you, your husband, and your accomplices.”

This contradicted a few things Lafayette had said years ago, but things a man says to the walls during a year alone in a small cell as punishment for a failed escape attempt don’t count. Madison wrote something about how a defendant cannot be forced to testify against himself, didn’t he? Along those lines.

In any case. “It’s occurred to me that you were the only other person I knew, besides myself, who was capable of simultaneous friendship with your brother-in-law over there and Mr. Jefferson. I like to think that speaks well of someone. 

“I’ve not done very well with my attempts to pacify opposing sides, madam, but a new set of troubles are growing in France. I’m very tired of all that, but I try to think of what advice you would give. The Romans would think of you as called by Minerva.

“I miss your letters, your ideas, your counsel, the spark you brought to the world. I’m going to do the one thing in my power that I think you would do, given a few hours alive again. Adieu.”

 

***

EPILOGUE

“Thank you for letting me into your parlor, Mrs. Hamilton,” Lafayette joked. He took a sip of his coffee.

Eliza laughed softly. She showed the years, of course, but she was so steady and vibrant that it was like she was lit from within. “You heard the story?”

“Not many women would forbid the ruler of her country entry to her house because he had a fight with her husband many years before.” He knew it hadn’t just been a fight, but he didn’t want to bring up the fact that the only reason Monroe and Hamilton hadn’t dueled was that a mutual friend had defused the situation. Aaron Burr.

“Alexander wouldn’t have wanted him in here.” Eliza kept a bust of Alexander on the mantelpiece. It was very like him, except for the eyes, which painters had never quite been able to do justice to, let alone sculptures. “Besides, I’ve been busy.”

“The first private orphanage in this city. It’s fitting and very beautiful, that you are doing that. I wish I could have introduced you to - ” His throat hitched. 

“How long ago?” 

Lafayette fetched his handkerchief, just to dab at the corners of his eyes. “Seven years. She was able to say goodbye, though, her last night. She said ‘I am all yours’, to me. She never - she could have gone home earlier, but instead she asked for her and our daughters to be allowed to keep me company instead of me still being solitary. It was only a year after that, but all those years added up...damp, you know, and not the best food, not much room to move, it ruined her, her health…” 

There was a knock at the door. “Is that your son?” Eliza asked. 

“Probably. He worries.”

The music that had been playing from somewhere else in the house came to a stop, and a woman ran past them. “Maybe it’s Philip!”

Soon Georges was being led to join the others while being cheerfully informed that “my older brother Philip, who’s a student at King’s College, will be home soon, and you can meet him.”

“You need to come back with me, Father. Our hosts are getting curious.”

Lafayette offered George a small cake. “Our minders can survive another hour or two.”

“They’re not our minders.”

“Guards?”

Georges rolled his eyes. “Should have brought Anastasie or Virginie. We could gang up on you.”

 

“Angie, why don’t you show Mr. du Motier the new piece you’ve just learned?” Eliza smiled. Lafayette had told her than she should refer to him and Georges as that to any member of the household who might let slip that he’d been here. Eliza had enough distractions to contend with without people wanting to ask her about the celebrity sighting.

As Eliza must have suspected, Georges had far too polished manners to turn down Angie’s delighted demonstration, conveniently in another room. 

“Thank you.” Lafayette felt it’d be rude to ask about Angie. Perhaps he’d misheard. He knew the youngest Hamilton child was also named Philip, and she might have been referring to that one.

They talked briefly about the challenges Eliza faced while directing the orphanage, but the rewards as well, and her ongoing efforts for Alexander’s legacy, including collecting Alexander’s writings into something coherent and publishable. “My son John Church Hamilton has been helping. I had a word with him about crossing out parts of his father’s letters, though, when I caught him at it. I said even if they can’t be made public, none of Alexander’s words should be destroyed.”

“I imagine your husband wrote some indelicate things over the years.” Lafayette wondered if Hamilton had kept Laurens’ letters.

“That’s one way to put it. Mildly.” She put down her coffee. “You’ll never stop missing her. But you’re filling your life with other good things, things she would be glad of. That’s all we can do until it’s time to be reunited. Would Alexander want this? Angelica? Peggy? My parents? My eldest son?”

“He was named Philip, correct?” Fine, he was asking, but at least it was indirect enough that she could dodge it easily.

She didn't. “Angie is my second. She was very bright, like her aunt. When her brother died, she grieved the worst out of all of us, and then she...changed. She became childlike in many ways. Most of the time, she believes her older brother's still alive. Playing piano makes her happy. We encourage it.”

“You’re a wonderful mother, and the orphans are in good hands” Lafayette did his best to fill his voice with admiration, and keep out any trace of pity. A small part of him thought it might be nice to have a delusion like that, but he didn’t think anyone he’d lost would want it for him. They’d want him to keep living anyway. 

Georges reappeared. “I’m very sorry, but we really need to move on.”

Lafayette nodded, and carefully got to his feet. He wished he could hit people with a cane every time someone suggested he get one. He bowed to Eliza, and to Angie, who was vaguely hovering in the doorframe. “Yes, I believe we do.”

**Author's Note:**

> This one had a lot of facts that I just had do something with. Facts I didn't have room for here:
> 
> \- Angelica and Eliza were with Alexander as he died, right? Alexander was with Peggy when she died, at the age of 41. He was in the area on business, and she asked for him in her last stages of illness. He sat with her and talked with her until she passed. He was the one who broke the news to Eliza. That's the origin of "Peggy confides in me." ;_;
> 
> \- There was a law in 1783 that slaves who fought in the Union Army had to be granted freedom. James Armistead was denied this because he'd been a spy, which according to the establishment meant he hadn't "fought". A number of people kicked up a fuss until the loophole was closed, but it was Lafayette that Armistead felt the most indebted to. 
> 
> \- I have no knowledge of any historical Mount Vernon slave graveyard. Real Mount Vernon does have a beautiful, dignified slave memorial now. And a Cafe Lafayette next to the gift shop.
> 
> ******  
> Commence apologetic-for-the-repetition-but-sincere-because-I-put-all-my-soul-in-this plug:
> 
> I have a published urban fantasy novel you might be interested in. The summary doesn't say so, but six of the major characters are queer in some way or other. I'm amazed they're letting me get away with it. [ Available as ebook and print form on Amazon](https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07DSLT3D2/ref=mp_s_a_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1529183871&sr=8-2&pi=AC_SX236_SY340_FMwebp_QL65&keywords=Donaya+Haymond&dpPl=1&dpID=51cFXjiasBL&ref=plSrch), and in [print from the Barnes & Noble site.](https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/seasons-turning-donaya-haymond/1129067787?ean=9780999202654)


End file.
